Crossroads Finale: For You
by dib07
Summary: Offical sequel to the original Crossroads. 'Sonic. We are all caught in different ways. We may never be together again.' Story: Discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

_Offical sequal to the original **Crossroads.**_

_**Summary:** Sonic. We are all caught in different ways. We may never be together again._

A Sonadow Fic

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**Dib07:** Okay, sorry for the confusion of the last chapter. What you are about to read will clear up 45% of that confusion! Lol! ^_^

_Anyways, as a quick recap, Chris was getting to know much about Shadow's strange, protective and abusive habits. Sonic and Shadow bought their own place, forcing Sonic to get a job to help pay the bills. Shadow took everything that he had for granted. Just at their relationship was starting to emerge, Shadow was struck down in more ways than one._

_This is a Sonic X universe fic 15 years in the future._

**Chapter 1: Away**

He stirred softly, eyes moving beneath his lids as he left the tarnished, painted world of fake dreams and haunted realities. As he came to, entering a cruel, hostile world of modern life, he caught the strange odors of man and sterile surfaces. He heard the clink of metal and the exhaling breath of another. From a larger being who was emotionally calm and tranquil.

Shadow felt strange too. He gathered that he wasn't lying down. No. He was in a forced vertical position that didn't agree with his spine.

With gentle caution he opened his blood red eyes. Annoyingly his vision wouldn't work from the getup. Things blurred. The high, white ceiling. The anonymous object in front that breathed. The floor. It wavered before his eyes like white desert sand dancing in the crumpled heat.

What could he remember? Nothing much. Was he still dreaming?

He recalled Chris coming round early morning. Pots of food for anorexics…

Then an aching first thought finally erupted in his mind's surface like a bursting boil. "Sonic…" He croaked, voice muted and stale on his lips. His throat burned. Lips as dry as straw.

"Coming around? Good. It took awhile, but we are still in the study processes. We don't know that much about you, but we'll know more…soon." The object spoke to him. Shadow looked upwards as much as his sore neck would allow. It wasn't a tall object but a man. A man wearing a thick white lab coat, wiry glasses on the bridge of his nose and a name tag on his left breast. Walter S.G.

"Sonic!" He tried again, swallowing. He went to move, bring a leg forwards, rise from the polished, artificial floor. But something held him, and his limbs stubbornly refused to encroach forwards. Annoyed, he tried to glance down at his body to see the answers. What he saw made him snarl openly, his eyes widening to their full width. His ankles were locked tight by these large diadem locks that encompassed each ankle in a circle. A key hole resided in each circle where he believed it would snap open if he ever got a key. His wrists were crossed over each other on his back, also locked together by chains that glowed blue and green. The chains came from holes in the floor, preventing him from moving mere inches. His neck was also fixed to a collar, keeping him from moving around freely at all. The chain was fixed to the floor too so that he had to sit stooped down. Already his back was aching from the unnatural position. He couldn't straighten himself up; knead the bones from their aching knots. Couldn't get any relief from the strain on his muscles.

Anger froze on his face once he took it all in. "What the hell?"

He pulled. Tore. Tried to shunt forwards. The chains strained, clinking and pulling as his weight pushed against them. But the diadems were like material he had never known. And for some reason the chaos energies he tapped into; though this need was rare, was still available to him when he lived with Sonic in this modern human world. Sadly, that little pleasure seemed to have been stolen from him.

"What happened?" Shadow growled, making sure his revealed his long canines to invite the scare factor. But the man; Walter, seemed unfazed.

"Don't remember? How convenient." The man's words were cheerless. Dry and empty as though he was talking to a cash machine.

"You sour piece of…" Shadow paused in mid-threat. Yes. He could remember now, as clear as day. He had woken up after having the most horrendous nightmare that was beyond realistic. He had shot out of bed, so tempted to call the emergency services for Sonic. Chris had come over, not pleased at having been woken at three in the morning. And Sonic… struggling up the stairs back to bed. Daylight had come. No premonition followed. The GUN official with the cameras…turned out differently too. Men came and broke into the kitchen in all places at once it seemed. He remembered gunfire. And he remembered screaming.

"It was illegal of you, but we were glad you did it."

"What?" Shadow swamped back to reality and looked at up the man who didn't approach any closer. He was holding a clipboard. He was leafing through it now like some mad teacher trying to find that elusive file.

"Your unique energies. Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?" Phlegm spat from his sore lips. Again he writhed against the futile bonds, buckling his wrists up and summoning the strength to break them. But each attempt made shortly made him grow drowsy and weak. He wasn't sure how, but somehow…somehow they were using his strength against him.

"You performed chaos control last night without a single emerald. You just tapped into energies of your own, and went back in time. Just like that." He clicked his fingers to amplify this as one hand briefly left the clipboard. Shadow's mouth hung open. "We're still trying to determine why and of course…how. We've been watching you and studying you for a long time, hoping for this kind of breakthrough. And you've rewarded us well."

"How do you mean?" Shadow spat angrily, "what are you fucking jabbering on about? Where is Sonic and Chris? How have I performed chaos control?"

Walter cocked his head at him in ample curiosity, as though he was looking at a rat behind glass that possessed more than one brain cell and yet could somehow type on a computer. "You really were unaware? Well, that's a possibility I suppose. But that's fine, I'll level with you. You do need to help us after all. Last night you created a black hole."

"How did you know that…that I did?" He stared into the human's candid eyes. But the warmth there was fake. The human seemed only fascinated by Shadow's abilities alone.

"Easy. We've been studying you both, but mainly you. You see, you've always possessed a unique blend of scientific genius thanks to your creator, Gerald Robotnik. The chaos emeralds too are a marvel of science. We weren't going to do anything to you once the Government saw you as civilians. But let's be honest here, the Government would have to be mad to let you aliens go free and walk our world as if it was your own. You bought weapons; the chaos emeralds into our world. They are capable enough of delivering a nuclear winter into our earth and killing millions of people. So we had to begin studying you; you who know the most about the emeralds. You have an affinity with them. More than any."

"I really went back in time? Stop dancing around the fucking subject!"

Walter nodded hesitantly, and pressed the clipboard flat against his chest. "We had satellites watching you. Recording what you said. First it started as standard FBI recruitment to start a project of awareness and protection, to really make sure you weren't a threat to humanity. We people are a paranoid race. Trust is not an easy word in practice."

"But Sonic gave you trust!" Shadow ached against his insolent restraints, "he gave you all of the emeralds so that you would get off our backs! Trust us a little bit more! We put faith in you! All of humanity! Don't you understand? He believed in you; thought you were good!"

"And we are. For our own benefits. Humans always look out for their own species. Haven't you learned that by now? Sonic is kind, sweet and naïve. So we accepted the emeralds, and have been studying them ever since. But try as we might, we couldn't tap into them. For years we sweated over them, all of my scientific team frustrated and tired. The greatest weapons ever known, and we could not crack them. We covertly took Rouge here to try and see if she could shine some light on their enigma. She has always shown a fascination in them, so we believed she knew something. We interrogated her. And then she passed away. Quite unfortunate."

"_What_?"

"Knuckles too. The red echidna. We had to kill him to remove the Master Emerald. It was regretfully the only way. We wanted to study him, ask him a few kind questions. But he wouldn't have it. So we had to use our standard procedures. We still have his body on ice. Maybe one day, you'll get to see it."

"You bastards!" That's it! He would have no more of this! No more!

He bulged against his restraints, feeling the metal grind over his flesh. The chains shivered in their keen, metallic tunes. The energy began to sap out of him just like it had before, but it left him even quicker now because of his earlier attempts. The healing wounds in his left shoulder, flank and arm hurt horribly and he had to stop. He tried to glance down at his places that hurt, and saw gauze there.

_Where I was shot._

Fresh blood blotted the creamy white gauze in inky blobs. He had been shot in many places.

"Reopened your wounds. Silly thing." Walter remarked with an indifferent shrug. "Oh well, we'll sedate you later and treat them. We need you alive for our project. We need time travel. We need full access to the emeralds."

"They are too powerful. If you ever know how to use them, you'd understand! They aren't for human hands! They never were!"

"They aren't for animal paws either. Since when did monkeys have the upper hand over us? No. You have been keeping their full potential from us all this time. And we've grown weary waiting. We'll use them for our own benefits. And besides, Shadow, don't you want to go home? See your family again? I know you have one. Your partner? If you don't co-operate, we'll have to bring him in here too. And that won't be pleasant, will it?"

"Don't you dare! You sick fucks!"

"You should consider yourself lucky we didn't bag him up too on the same day we took you. He wasn't going to be healthy enough for interrogation. And the morgue is a bit full at the moment."

"Stuff you! I am getting out, and you'll be the first to be disemboweled! I hope the emeralds remain a secret, forever!"

"Well, that's where you're wrong. You know a lot about them already. Everything is still sadly on a trial basis, nothing is concrete, and that's why we need your help. But with or without you, we're getting there. A lot of it is confidential information, but we are very pleased with our progress. And then you spoil us by performing chaos control all by yourself. We need to know your secret, know exactly how you did it and repeat the tactic. We want to know how far back in time you can go, and how useful it will be for us to correct our history. Imagine the wars we can stop and the famine we can eliminate with your abilities?"

"You'll use it for evil! You fucking killed Rouge and Knuckles! This fucking proves it! Sonic will murder you! I will murder you!"

"Now, now. They were simply being uncooperative. We can't have time-wasters eating up our schedules. It's been fifteen years already, and we're still only scratching the surface. You'll speed up our research by 800%!"

"Tell me," Shadow began with a calmer façade. "Who is in charge of this research? You gave it the go-ahead? The Government?"

"Too cliché!" Walter said with a simple, knowing nod. "Even if it wasn't the Government, they surely wouldn't pursue a fruitless, frustrating project for fifteen or more years, surely? They have people to organize and tax. Nations to control. Rules to be applied, politics and money. There never has been a conspiracy with them. They are merely a right hand, doing their duty. No. We own the Government. We own the State."

"Who the fuck are you?" This time he really did scream it. In his heart he was worried. Stupidly worried for a little anorexic hedgehog. Not the end of the world, not nuclear weapons or his own chained self. He was just worried for Sonic. If he really did go back in time, then his assumptions about the dream was correct. It really did happen. The funeral, everything. Somehow, not long after it, the stress and pain must have subconsciously activated something he wasn't capable of doing. And he had gone back in time. Which meant…Sonic would die from starvation. All over again.

"Get me out! Please get me out of here! Take me home! I need to see Sonic! Please!"

"I love your energy. Your body took four bullets." Walter was on a different train of thought, and marveled at Shadow's physical prowess than anything of what the Ultimate Life Form was saying. "Amazing. We removed them, and your injuries though severe, are healing. We never hit any organs. We did want you alive, but enough damage to put you out, least you hurt any of my men. You are vital to us, but a dangerous life form nonetheless."

"Why didn't my energies work against them in the kitchen…? Why couldn't I…?"

"Fifteen years of research, that. We tapped into your unique magnetic field that is an exact product of the emeralds. We numbed your field like we can to the emeralds by using ZetaXC4, or as you call her, the silver emerald. This little miracle can safely neutralize her sisters, like water diluting acid. It took time for us to learn as such, and even this little bit of information managed to tame you and numb the other six emeralds. It isn't a massively useful skill, but we are learning, my friend."

Shadow sat lax against his bonds. This was bad. Very bad. All this time… all this time GUN had been learning. Learning about them…the emeralds…everything. While they lived the life, their enemies were researching. Thinking, plotting. Hiding. Experimenting. Calculating. They probably still had all of Gerald's notes somehow… had gone into Eggman's more recent research and added that it their own. And now they had him. And Sonic…the seed that started it all… had given them the emeralds to further feed their dangerous lust. But he was also the one who was dying.

_Okay, Shadow, think. You are master of the emeralds. Gerald, my father, made it so. Even the Xorda were unsuccessful against me, and the emeralds were theirs. These are mere humans. Children in a strange and cruel universe. I can stop this, I can kill them. I can get out! I can rescue Sonic!_

Rescue him…from what? Himself?

Walter watched with greedy eyes, chin resting on the metal clip of the clipboard. His long, silver hair freely rolled down his shoulders, making him appear much younger than he really was. And still he was smirking. Smirking before the Ultimate Life Form.

He willed his mind to concentrate. To focus and feed from the emeralds. But there was nothing to reach towards. Nothing to grope for. Only cold, void blackness. Like fumbling through airless water and unable to find a bottom. The emeralds weren't even there.

_A trick! A dirty trick!_

"What are you going to use the emeralds and me for?" Shadow barked out, his voice throaty and dark.

"Confidential information, though I'm sure my client will explain."

"Client?"

"Yes. The one who presides over this whole operation. He's in charge of every facility, you know. Including the Weapons' Department and Marines. And the Government. And even the President has to bow down to the man in charge of the military. They have the power, after all. The President is just an elected official governed by useless politics. A pawn, if you will. A stand in for people to see. A puppet. But not the most powerful man in the world. No. And today, you get to see him! This is more special than winning the lottery!"

"I want answers! Not some greedy, rich client!" Shadow snapped frostily, trying to rise upward against the various buckles, chains and diadems. He tried to purge out something…anything. A brief rattle of power boomed across his forehead. _Yes, yes! Think angry thoughts! Kill this dirty little man! Rent yourself free! Sonic!_

The diadems glowed and the power drained from him immediately. The lashing warmth of a building storm inside of him had become cold, hollow tranquility. _The diadems…they were hexed. Designed to keep me down. Rob me of my power. They must have learnt this too. Bastards!_

"Temper, temper!" Walter mocked with a delicate smile. He looked like a lady charmer. A businessman in another life. But this time he was devoted to lab experiments and injecting animals with cancer and molesting chaos emeralds. All in a day's work.

The human rested the clipboard on his hip, surveying Shadow one last time, eyes blinking studiously behind the lens of his glasses. "You are a secret, a gate, waiting to be unlocked. We'll get what we want out of you. Fifteen years was enough. Now you are the next step." He nodded again, an odd human gesture that Shadow never really understood. He tried to understand. Wanted to. But it was hard to concentrate past the panic. He was here, stuck. And Sonic was helpless without him.

Walter walked away, his boot heels smacking down on the solid, white flooring as he left. His lab coat billowing out behind him like wings. Shadow blinked in his absence, swallowing with difficulty. The room wasn't very big. He couldn't look behind him, but he could hear all around. The walls were padded. He could tell that this was so because of the way the walls muted sound a lot more than a steel or plastic surface. The floor was a slick, polished material he had not come across before. He could see his miserable reflection in it and the artificial lights encrusted on the ceiling above his head.

_Rouge dead…_

_Knuckles… murdered too…_

He didn't care much for them. Seldom had. But it hurt to know nevertheless.

He looked directly in front of him. There was ten yards distance between him and the door. No doubt the door worked in twos, one always locked first before opening the second. There was a large overlooking mirror to his right. He knew from watching enough movies that the mirror was two-way glass.

Walter S.G left. For a time there was nothing but steely silence. The blessed relief to be alone with his maddening thoughts. A time to plot, consulate himself. Howl mentally in anguish.

_I went back in time by seven hours and three days. I think. That's if it clicked after the funeral. Shit. I really did go back in time. But how did I? And why won't it work now?_

The door opened again after a thirty second delay. His stomach tightened inside. His ears drew forwards, eyes locked ahead. Would it be someone he knew? A figure he saw once on TV? An associate whom made no surmountable difference?

_Fuck this. I don' have time. I want to go back home!_

Until today, Shadow had never felt any real urgency except of course in that frightful dream he had. But now, here, incarcerated in hexes and diadems, he had never felt such a desire to simply be with the one he loved. He felt a sense of wrong every time he thought about him. Sonic needed him. And he was here, stuck! STUCK!

"God, help me. Please."

A figure stepped in. Tall and wide. Unlike Walter's echoing footsteps that bespoke disturbing calamity every time he planted a step, this one treaded lightly. Gaily. With soft boot grips.

Shadow growled once. "This is a trick! You're old! You aren't the real thing!"

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><p><strong>(coming soon) Chapter 2: Unable to Find<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Dib07:** I big MASSIVE **sorry** for keeping you all waiting. This new chapter is a special thank you to all my readers and reviewers who have inspired and kick-started me into updating. Sadly Crossroads Finale has been at the bottom of my-things-to-do which has been a shame, but finally I've got it going again, lol. And all those who were wondering; yes, there will be angst. That's the problem with all stories written by Dib07. It's a curse.

Thanks to DC111, PaintMyLips, SonicFangirl123, TawnyOwl57, Tails Luv-er, Anonymous (The Anonymous :D), Guest, fireclaw239 and finally InsertUnoriginalPenNameHere. I love you all!

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Unable to Find<strong>

Tails plugged his headset in and hopped into the X-Cyclone. The plane, an old relic now from his younger years, was a veteran of survival and resilience. Its updates were extensive and compassionate, all in getting it to be the best it could be, whether that merely be rescuing lost animals, saving people or an instrument against hard fought battles. Now it was a glorified transport vessel. The X-Tornado had been dismantled for its parts. Besides, as much as Tails loved that plane to death, it was useless without an emerald to power it.

To Chris's desperate wishes, the kitson scouted the skies for Shadow or any GUN official. The plane was quick to take off, and he accelerated upwards until he reached minimum safe altitude. But he knew the answers. There would be no one to find. GUN wasn't an obvious organization that liked making themselves known. They came out like a virus, and then vanished without a trace.

Scared and unable to trust the police, Chris had left the house with Sonic. But that was a day ago now, and Sonic insisted that they go back in case Shadow might return home. Chris was adamant that they retreat somewhere safe until they knew who and what they were dealing with. But Sonic argued, and would not let the human have his way. And so they remained there now. Chris cleaned up the broken glass on the kitchen tiles and fixed the door. The place was a state. Bullet holes in the plaster of the kitchen wall that had burst through into the next room and hit a painting. Blood had splattered onto the table and cupboard doors. But why they had suddenly come in for Shadow remained a mystery, one that Tails was left to solve. Seeing it too dangerous, Amy was declined to join in on the search.

"Hello, this is Miles Prower on the line. Can I talk with the President please? This is an emergency." Everything was set and working. The recorder, headset and communicator hooked to a wireless talking set. Ever since Sonic had given up the emeralds to the safety of the human race, they saw it fit to remove Tails' emerald tracker too. The Government's excuse was; _enemies of the state could use your plane against us. The tracker must be handed over for the good of mankind._

To keep them happy, Tails had to oblige, what with Sonic already sacrificing the emeralds. At the time, there was no need for the emeralds anyway. They had captured Dr. Eggman once and for all. Destroyed every single robot he had, and scrounged in his bases and tore them apart. And so the animals from Mobius complied with them, and conformed to their rules. They all had to make sacrifices if they wanted to stay in this world peacefully. Shadow had to give up using his powers. Knuckles had to be guarded night and day by humans while the echidna guarded the Master Emerald. Rouge too was kept under vigilant eyes. It was a very tense debacle and created angst on their side too. Knuckles fell out with Sonic for that very reason all those years ago. Because the hedgehog had denoted the emeralds to the Government. Hating his decision, the echidna refused to have any part with the animals, and kept to himself. And so the rift of the divide had started long before this.

Shadow too didn't like the initial decision. But life was certainly easier without the worry of Eggman or emeralds. So he conformed too. Wanting a normal life like any of them did. And a relationship. To live had always been Shadow's dream. To live and find happiness. And he had. And now he was taken. By humans. Years of trying to find happiness…and it was all ripped to shreds.

"Yes, this is Miles?" A soft voice came through. One of senescent wisdom. "I am the President, Peter J Carter at your service. Under the Acting code 2785, you can talk in confidence. I am all yours."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Of course. Shoot away, my friend."

"One of our friends, Shadow, has been taken, sir. Less than seven hours ago by whom we believe to be GUN officials. We request immediate aid. We also fear that you might be behind this, sir."

Tails anxiously waited for a reply. If he even got any. The buildings passed solely below in their monoliths of astute technology and strength. He never truly got over living in a human world. And it wasn't exactly _his_ dream. Sonic had chosen this reality for all of them. For without the emeralds, they'd never be any chaos control to send them all back home.

"We do not have your friend, Tails. This is the truth. You have my word. GUN you say? I am shocked. They work for me. Where did they attack?"

Tails quickly explained what had happened those hours before. The gunshots, the intrusion overall. The attack was deliberate and planned. This was no mistake. Shadow's abduction had been on purpose. For the moment he was selfishly relieved, because they had not taken his brother.

"Right, right," the President on the line reiterated in his usual, soft spoken manner. "I see. Okay, we're on the case. You can trust me, Mr. Prower. Are the others safe?"

"Yes."

"Okay, we're on it. Expect an investigation team in approx. 2 hours. We'll find Shadow. This may be an act of terrorism."

"But why?"

"I'm not sure yet. But that's the investigation team's job."

Tails clicked off with a bad taste in his mouth. It was true that the President was at least trying to be helpful and encouraging. Genuine and benevolent. But Tails always got the feeling that the humans didn't like them. These aliens from another world were complicated. A loose cannon. Unpredictable. Not part of the greater plan for humanity. Not helpful. A chaotic factor. And so Tails didn't much trust the humans either. Humans were only ever involved or interested in their own selves. And Sonic's golden heart blinded him from what humans were really like, because they were sadly not all like Christopher Thorndyke.

Tails banked in the sky and leveled down a little more. He would find nothing today. He would go to Prison Island to speak with their chief officials, but he had a feeling that search too would end up dry. Chris had warned him to be careful that morning. "Speak to no one you are unsure of. If they took Shadow for some reason, they might take an interest in you too."

This had stalled Tails. Badly. He actually got scared. Because they were all alone. Shadow was gone. They had no emeralds… They weren't even sure what the threat actually was.

Tails blasted off towards Mystic Ruins. "Chris, Chris do you copy, over?"

"I'm here Tails. Anything?" He sounded croaky and tired. He had been getting no sleep. Then again, neither had Tails. Too much was happening all at once. Their world was collapsing completely. And the kitson was frightened.

"The President is looking into it, but I doubt he'll be able to help. He stays in a chair all day. Chris, I have this really, really bad feeling. You gotta hide. Go somewhere safe. What if they come after you? You are an associate with us. You have the most information on us, and Shadow. Don't go home. Go to a hotel and stay there a week or so."

"I'm not bailing, Tails. I wanna help. Please. I should have helped before… and now all this has happened. This is the least I can do. God dammit Tails… I feel so guilty! It's eating me up!"

"Chris, not now! Pack your things…"

"No! We're in on this together!"

The line went dead.

_Chris…I hate this too...I know why you won't leave, but it doesn't make any difference._

The Mystic Ruins was always a charming place to see. Everything was so green and beautiful. Knuckles always called it a portion of home. The temple that cradled the Master Emerald rose out of the virtuous jungle like a sorrel birthmark. The place looked really wild and overgrown now. Hadn't the echidna been trimming the verdure back?

He circled down in his plane and opened the windshield up. It opened gently, allowing air to gush in and roll over his fur and ears. Strangely there was no shiny, giant green emerald sitting at the top. It wasn't a pleasant sight. As Tails looked over the side of the cockpit, he could see no sign of it. Was it possible that Knuckles had moved the emerald?

Today was getting odder.

Tails landed some thirty yards away to keep his plane or even the wheels getting tangled in jungle fern and vines. They sprouted here in gluttonous numbers and intermingled with the overlapping foliage.

Crows burst into the sky when Tails sauntered in the shadows of the trees, making him jump. He ran into the bark of a big tree and stayed there for a few moments, ears swerved down. From here he could see the temple. Despite the jungle enshrouding it, wanting to claim back the old brick into nature eternal, it was still a wonderful sight. And it looked just as he had remembered it when he and…

He shook his head. No more memories. Shadow was in danger. Or dead. Possible war was now staged. And Tails needed help.

"Knuckles? Hullo? Hey, it's me, Tails. You okay?" He minded the large boulders and masses of nettles as he approached. More birds alighted suddenly, squawking and screaming. It was almost as though they usually owned the place. As though… Mystic Ruins had been abandoned.

"Knuckles! Answer me! Please!" He picked his way forwards and came to the first step leading up to the apex of the temple. This step had almost disappeared under green growth. Even the next one was covered in slimy moss and red flowers. "Knuckles! Hello?" His voice echoed painfully. And no answer floated back to allay his panicky call.

Proceeding up the steps carefully so as not to trip and fall, it became all too clear that the echidna was not here. The Master Emerald absent too. It was an age old joke that there'd never be one without the other. If Knuckles was absent, so too was the emerald. And here, it was painfully applied.

Tails looked for signs. Tracks. Anything. There was old scuff marks closer to the top. Bird droppings. Old leaves. Claw marks where Knuckles would sharpen his knuckled claws on stone or hard dirt to keep them sharp. There was no smells of echidna here though. None at all, which meant that whatever had happened here, had happened a long time ago. Long before Shadow and Sonic were first starting to court each other.

"Does not make sense…did they take the Master Emerald too? But…but why?"

A sultry wind blew. Tails began to weep.

XXX

"You!" Shadow tried to hunch forwards but the bonds clipped him back. He hadn't done that much struggling, and already his wrists and ankles were burning. It was almost as though the hexes anticipated his retaliations and branded his flesh with repercussions. "This is a trick! You're old! You aren't the real thing!"

"Oh, do I disappoint you? I must say, I do like my sexy image. Brings the flare back!" Dr. Eggman strolled casually towards him as though he was in his comfort zone. He swirled a glass of sherry in one gloved hand. His moustache was full and bushy. His skin no longer sagged with wrinkles. Abdomen not as flaccid and lumpish. He looked incredibly young. Young enough to be in his mid-twenties. Which was impossible. That made him younger than Sonic.

He still wore the same red and black clothes. The same shoes and tight leather pants. The sight of him was a waking nightmare.

"You do look shocked, my boy. Want a drink?" He approached the wall opposite and tapped once. A hidden padded panel opened out, revealing a little shelf containing iced sherry bottles and fine, delicate crystal drinking glasses. Dr. Eggman downed his glass and replaced it with a full one. Then he poured one out for Shadow. The panel dutifully closed.

"You better start giving me answers." Shadow watched him spitefully. Eyes balefully narrowed. Lips parting over teeth.

"Or you'll do what? Cry? Sing? Throw a tantrum?" Eggamn shook his head and knelt before Shadow, offering the drink towards him. "We should be celebrating! Not fighting!"

"Celebrating what?" Shadow asked.

Knowing that either Shadow could not reach the drink or assumed he simply didn't want it either way, Eggman sipped at both before throwing them casually over his shoulder. But they didn't break. The glasses bounced across the floor like rubber balls, and came to a silent, eerie rest behind him.

"The end of one reign and the beginning of another." Eggman smiled graciously behind his full moustache. He still wore his little black glasses that were iconic to him as Sonic's shoes were to his image. Shadow had seen the Doctor before, when GUN convinced all the animals that Eggman had gone senile. Had it been an act all along?

"But…how did…? You are the client? Head of this division…?"

"Ah, I see you are confused, my little child of unlocking! It's good to have you trapped like this. I designed the trap you are in, you know. It isn't a weapon or something offensive, but it is the best I have done for quite some time! My ideas are getting better and better! And I have Sonic to thank for all of it!"

"How do you mean?" He badly wanted to rip out of his restraints and yank the man's voice box out. Do something horrible to him. Rape him. Gouge his eyes out. Tear his belly open to see if it was all clockwork beneath that plastic fat.

The Doctor looked at Shadow idly. Smiling all the time. "He never saw fit to kill me. And why would he? I am after all the greatest genius ever to exist! I am a worthy opponent! And though my rival hurt me on a couple of occasions, he could never go through with murder. So I was jailed. Imprisoned for life, but alive." He stopped briefly to glimmer upon his wristwatch after pushing up a portion of his red sleeve. "Now, we are pressed for time, but I will treat you to see what happened to one of our last guests a year ago. You might remember him. I however hated the bastard. He never told us anything. We tried and tried. But alas, I was forced to use violent measures. And he was disciplined."

"How do you manage to look so young? Are you a robot?" He blurted out. His brain was struggling to function. He was kidnapped. Forced away from his partner. Chaos emeralds used as experiments. Eggman…young again. Too much at once… too much to take in…

"A robot you say?" Eggman exploded in hawkish laughter that made his belly wobble as he clutched it. "Now that's an idea! Oooh, you! Tease!" He calmed down somewhat, catching a tear of joy on his finger before flicking it away. "Though you can't eat and enjoy food as a robot. You can't take a shit as a robot. And you certainly can't laugh as a robot! Oh now, dear Shadow. I am this way thanks to the chaos emeralds. Since you'll be nothing but boneless flesh in a few days, I'll let you in on my secret." He brushed his nose, smiling in his big, fat ugly grin. "You see, it's fairly simple, even for a one-brain-celled organism such as yourself to understand. I have my daily radiation therapy. You see, after careful research and findings, we were able to pinpoint the vitality of each emerald, but one of its own isn't enough. Once combined, all seven produce this euphoric effect that rejuvenates dying cells. You see, dear creature, it even restructures old tissue and cells, organs and blood vessels. It's pure magic! Not only does it stop aging, it reveres it!"

"So you have unremitting youth. Perfect." Shadow sneered, unimpressed. "And you have all seven emeralds. Good. Keep them. Just let me go. I need to go home! I am of no harm to you! None of us are a threat anymore! Please!"

"Begging are we?" His cheesy smile just got wider. "You see Shadow, I don't have everything. That's the problem. I have to have hours of radioactive therapy every day when I could be doing other things. It's not enough. But if I don't go through with the therapy, I age. Quickly. My wrinkles reappear within a week and I feel stiff and clumsy. I want to be immortal, forever. Just. Like. You. And you are going to help me achieve that."

"In your fucking dreams."

"Language, dear boy! You want to see your beloved Sonic again? Yes, I know about your acquaintances with him too. The pair of you are sick, twisted fucks. But I do need to keep reminding myself that you are just a bunch of godless animals."

"Please let me go! I'll give you immortality! Just let me go!"

"The key to immortality is locked in your genetic makeup. Your DNA. I'm not stupid. But that's okay, I like those who beg, it turns me on."

"You sick, fat…"

Eggman kept on smiling. Nothing seemed to break that faze. Shake his step or startle his demeanor. Then some hesitation, some lurking idea seemed to slip into his grin and he rose, heading for the door. "Walter," he cried out shrilly. "Come here for a moment please." As he moved towards the door, Shadow's ears strained forwards. The inner door to Shadow's cell opened. The silver groomed man peered in, and their voices dropped to mere whispers. "Why couldn't you bring…" Some of it was lost, but it was Dr. Eggman talking in hushed undertones, obviously not wanting to be heard. But Shadow's hearing was a lot better than they presumed, so he was able to catch snippets of what they were saying. "He might not give us..."

Walter whispered something back. His face forever bland. It was short what he said. Two words. Then Eggman's back straightened at this information and the Doctor replied brightly so that Shadow could hear. "Ah well, that clears that up, I suppose. Just a few hours ago, was it? Really? Well, moving on then!" He brushed his hands together and walked back into the door. Walter went away. The door closed. The Doctor then looked up across to the mirror in feral urgency and clapped his hands together. "Portable screen, now! And hurry! I am getting hungry!"

Something else opened out from the padded wall, much closer to Shadow's side. A long, steel arm came out like a robotic limb. The hand of it proceeded it with nimble fluidity. It turned towards Shadow and Eggman, and in no more than a blink, the hand opened out and became a thin TV screen. "Play recording of April the 19th, Tuesday at 8:40 am." Eggman spoke. The blank TV screen lit up with static fuzz. Shadow unconsciously leaned forwards against his restraints. The static lifted. There was a table in the room. A long table in a small room. Sonic was sitting at the table, playing with one of his gloves. He looked like he had been sitting there for quite some time while he sat, mulling on a large, steel chair. The room was similar to Shadow's prison that reflected a square, empty box save for the table and chair. Sonic looked incredibly healthy in the screen. He almost _looked_ plump. Fur glossy and ethereal. Not bone tight thin.

A door opened on the other side. This recording must have been taken from a camera on the ceiling. It panned right to reveal the person entering. Sonic stiffened in his seat in the far corner of the camera screen.

"Egg…?"

The image was cut off abruptly and replaced with a new recording. It was Knuckles in a white padded room. With no tables and chairs. It looked exactly like the room Shadow was currently in.

"Wait!" Shadow yelled hysterically, "Go back! Rewind! Where's the rest of Sonic's recording?"

"Oh, erased. We don't need that file on him anymore. Now watch."

"FUCK YOU!"

Eggman tutted under his breath. "Now, now. Concentrate. You'll like this."


End file.
